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Vestas confirms use of ZephIR Lidar on multi-rotor concept demonstrator

27 Jul 2016

In April 2016, Vestas revealed that they are working on optimising wind energy production and lowering the cost of energy by testing a multi-rotor concept demonstrator. Today, we can confirm that the innovative concept demonstrator uses the advanced remote sensing technology from ZephIR Lidar, an approved Vestas lidar supplier.

“The installation of this multi-rotor concept demonstration turbine has enabled us to show that innovation sometimes requires new mind-sets and bold approaches“, says Jorge Magalhaes, Senior Vice President Innovation & Concepts at Vestas. “ZephIR Lidar has supported us extensively through identifying the best possible application of their unique circular scanning lidar technology to our new concept design, giving us an innovative edge that just isn’t possible through traditional techniques or other technologies.”

The Vestas concept demonstrator challenges the core scaling rules that turbines have to grow in size to increase their energy output, and also addresses transport and installation challenges in some markets. Many new load and control features will need to be developed, tested, and proven to assess the technical and eventually the commercial feasibility of the concept. After a successful demonstration, Vestas will know more about the potential and possible use of the technologies. The installed ZephIR DM wind lidar will be used to accurately measure the wind characteristics, including wind speed, direction, veer, and shear across the full swept area of the rotors installed on the concept design. This information will enable the ongoing development of the Vestas control strategies on the design.

Ian Locker, MD at ZephIR Lidar, was delighted at the multi-rotor launch commenting: “This is certainly a landmark project for both Vestas and the wind industry, challenging the traditional wind turbine design constraints in a highly innovative method. ZephIR Lidar continues to support and enable innovation within the industry with our wind lidars, and we have very much become the industry standard for concept demonstrations, operating as an absolute wind measurement system with accurate and repeatable results that turbine manufactures can rely on.”

ZephIR DM is a unique Dual-Mode wind lidar for turbine-mounted, high resolution, full rotor wind measurements upwind of a wind turbine from 10 metres to 300+ metres to benchmark turbine performance, identify opportunities for increased production and inform O&M strategies. All with the added functionality of ground-based deployments from the same core product.